Officials don't expect to find any survivors after a plane carrying six people disappeared over Lake Erie Thursday, and search efforts were suspended Friday evening.

"The decision to suspend a search is never easy," Capt. Michael Mullen of the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement. "I extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who lost loved ones during this tragedy."

The pilot of the plane was John T. Fleming, according to a statement from an executive at the company where Fleming is president and CEO. Joseph McHenry, EVP of Superior Beverage Group, said the others on the plane were Fleming's wife, Sue, their teenage sons, Jack and Andrew, and two close friends identified as a neighbour and the neighbour's daughter.

​The coast guard was notified Thursday around 11:30 p.m. that a Cessna Citation 525 took off from Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, then disappeared from radar shortly after.

At the request of the U.S. Air Force, a Canadian C-130 Hercules plane was dispatched from the Joint Response Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., to assist with the search.

Crews scoured the lake for a total of 20 hours and covered an area of more than 330 square kilometres, the statement said.

The Coast Guard said it suspends search and rescue cases only "with extreme care and deliberation."

"After a search area is located and saturated with a maximum number of assets, resources and crew effort, and persons in distress are still not located, a decision is made to suspend a search for survivors."

Representatives from the City of Cleveland and the Coast Guard will hold a joint press conference Saturday to talk about recovery efforts.